Chapter 13 - Lots of Smoke and Mirrors...Los Angeles

Hi again -

On May 14, we left San Diego and drove two hours north up the Pacific Coast Highway (aka Historic 101 Route) to Los Angeles.

Along the way in Carlsbad, we can across a women's rights protest. Unexpected entertainment, but it didn't slow us down.

Welcome to Los Angeles!

We tried our first Randy’s Donuts; pink sprinkled, blueberry cake, lemon filled and strawberry filled.

Randy's Donuts were delicious!

Our first day out we decided to check out Beverly Hiis and Rodeo Dr.

Rodeo Dr., a street in Beverly Hills that is known for its high-end shops, was disappointing. Not sure what we were expecting, but it was only about 3-4 blocks long and the window displays and landscaping were nothing special.

Beverly Hills was also disappointing.

I did love this sign....so colorful!

Cheers in front of the historic Beverly Hills sign.

I loved this metal sculpture...person running with tons of stuff balanced on their head.

We did love the huge palm trees that lined most streets in Beverly Hills.

In the 1990s, The Viper Room was one of LA's wildest nightclubs on the Sunset Strip.
We didn't know it was opened by Johnny Depp. Lots of history there.

The houses we saw in Beverly Hills were nice, but not as grand as we thought they would be. We were looking for the glitz and glamour that we hear about in Hollywood, but we could not find it.

We decided the entertainment industry sure does a great job of selling LA with a lot of smoke and mirrors.

We tried the most popular burger/fry fast food restaurants while in LA. In & Out Burger was our favorite burger and Fatburger had the best steak fries.

Yummy.....steak fries!

We biked the Strand about three miles from Santa Monica Beach to Venice Beach.

The biking at the was great!

We stopped at Santa Monica Pier...great place to people watch.

Corp and our folding pedal bikes. Lots of amusement rides on the pier.

Lots of people on the pier that day.

Bought a pressed sandstone carving with our last name. We thought it was pretty neat!

End of the historic Route 66

Santa Monica Beach was another great beach.

You had to pay to park everywhere in LA, including the beaches.
When we drove up to Santa Monica Beach a woman was leaving and gave us her parking receipt, so we didn't have to pay. Such a nice gesture and we made sure to pay it forward.

Corp took a video of the interesting cast of characters on Venice Beach.

Corp really liked this store with all the little metal sculptures.
The Transformers sculptures were really impressive.

On May 16, we biked Manhattan and Hermosa beaches. Again, great beaches with even larger and more expensive houses. A lot more impressive than Malibu.

Manhattan Beach had so many huge homes/mansions on the Strand.

The pier at Manhattan Beach.

Fun photo on the pier.

On May 17, we tried Pink's Hot Dogs and checked out the world-famous Hollywood Blvd.

The Emeral "Bam dog was super messy to eat.

The Emeral “Bam” dog was a hot dog with bacon, coleslaw, jalapenos, mustard, cheese, etc.
Yummy, but we thought overpriced at $12. I could easily make this at home.

Pink's was founded in 1939 and has a ton of history. It was fun looking at all the 8 x 10 photos of famous people who have visited.

It was fun trying to find the Hollywood Sign while walking on Hollywood Blvd.

We both had fun pointing out the Hollywood sign.

Not sure why Corp's pic was a lot further away.

We went to Denny's and had the most delicious salted caramel chocolate chip cookie

ice cream dessert. It was sizzling on the plate when they served it.

We drove up into the Hollywood Hills. We were really surprised to discover how close some of the homes are to each other.

Great view of LA.

Traffic and parking are big problems in LA. There was no scooter riding in LA because you had to drive on highways/interstates everywhere you went.

We were always driving in traffic no matter where we went or what time we left. Everything was always an hour away.

On May 18, we drove through Compton at 10:30 a.m. It was no big deal, although we were advised not to walk around Compton at night because gang activity is still present, and violence happens often. We couldn't believe the houses in Compton were still $1 million or more when looking on Zillow.

We knew Skid Row would be bad, but seeing it first hand was something else. These people are living on the streets....many living on the sidewalk in tents with everything they own covering the sidewalk. They estimate there are 40,000+ homeless people in LA.

Video of Skid Row

And then six blocks from Skid Row is the Financial District in Downtown LA. We were so shocked to discover such extreme wealth and homeless people so close to each other.

We were told to check out Grand Central Market for lunch, so we did.

The shrimp ceviche was delicious! It had been weeks since we had ceviche. In Mexico, we ate it all the time.

Lo mein was super yummy...fried rice not as much.

Surprisingly, Huntington Beach was chilly!

What....jacket weather at the beach in LA....say it isn't so!

On May 19, we were off to Malibu…. another disappointment. All the houses on the beach seemed so worn out.

The beach in Malibu was not nearly as nice as Manhattan and Hermosa beaches.

Coral Canyon Rd., located just outside of Malibu, was a beautiful drive.

Apparently, a lot of famous people live in Corral Canyon. We didn't see any.

Video of Corral Canyon Rd.

It was foggy the first time we drove it.

A video of the foggy drive.

We met an interesting guy at the top of the hill that encouraged us to drive it again on a sunny day.

Not quite a sunny day, but the views were stunning on our second trip up the mountain.

We hiked the Escondido Canyon Trail to the waterfall, but it was just a trickle.

We were excited to get tickets to go to the Jimmy Kimmel show on May 21 at the El Capitan Theatre.

The night before we were disappointed the show was cancelled because he tested positive for COVID.

While in Hollywood, they had the red carpet for the premier of the Bob's Burgers Movie.
We didn't see the stars walking the red carpet but was neat to see them setting it up.

On May 20, we went to Long Beach and walked along the Venice Canals in Venice. The Italian-inspired artificial canals were built in 1905, with sidewalks and bridges for pedestrians. The architecture and landscaping in the neighborhood were one-of-a-kind.